Great Lakes Brewing Company Releases 2019 Beer Lineup

Born in 1988, the 30-year-old independent and employee-owned brewery, Great Lakes Brewing Company (GLBC) has announced its 2019 lineup. Alongside favorites such as Edmund Fitzgerald Porter and Burning River Pale Ale, GLBC unveils its new, year-round Great Lakes IPA, an IPA that honors its employee owners. As well, GLBC has a new cocktail-inspired Buckin’ Mule Moscow Mule Ale, and the Moses Mix Variety Pack, which features Holy Moses White Ale alongside two variants. But, that’s not all. New cans, new branding and new beers highlight the schedule for next year.
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Taft’s Ale House | Gustav Vienna Lager

Ryan Blandford, head brewer at Cincinnati’s Taft’s Ale House, won his first gold medal at the World Beer Cup while working for crosstown brewery Fifty West in 2016. When he heard Fifty West’s 10 & 2 Barleywine announced, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“I was jumping up and down and swearing,” laughed Blandford when we spoke on the phone last week. “As a young brewer you look up to these guys who are winning all these medals and when you’re fortunate enough to win one, well, you’re kind of freaking out.”

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Fat Head’s Brewery | Sunshine Daydream

This is it, my friends. We are in November. At least for many of you throughout the country, the weather has shifted. The jet stream has begun to re-calibrate. Winds are picking up, the clouds are more uniform, and the precipitation has already started to solidify into the four-letter word most people loath to use. It’s inevitable, though. Unless you are in Yuma or Miami, or you have your sights set on Hawaii for a month, that thermometer isn’t going to budge much over 60 degrees for awhile. Your bright and sunny days are going to be at a minimum. Thankfully, a well-known brewery has just the antidote to shoo away the clouds and bring back the warmth for a little while. Fat Head’s Brewery’s Sunshine Daydream is at your beck and call; this session IPA is available all year long, rain or shine.

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The OGs of Craft Beer | Great Lakes Brewing Edmund Fitzgerald Porter

“It just feels right that this is a beer that comes from Cleveland,” says Great Lakes Brewing Company co-founder Pat Conway of his brewery’s Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. The iconic dark brew is named for the ill-fated iron ore freighter that sank on Lake Superior with all hands during a vicious storm on November 10, 1975.

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Rivertown Brewing | Raspberry Flicker

The first time I tasted Rivertown Brewing’s Raspberry Flicker in their airy Monroe, Ohio, taproom on a sunny day in late January, it reminded me of childhood. I realize that’s an odd thing to say about an alcoholic beverage, but stay with me. No, my childhood did not involve me throwing back refreshing lagers. But it did involve raspberries.

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Blackberry Prairie Wheat | Moeller Brew Barn

Maria Stein, Ohio, is not the first place you expect to find a great brewery. The tiny, unincorporated town in rural Mercer County is home to only a couple hundred people, and the cattle in the area likely outnumber them. This region of west central Ohio, just north of the midline of the state, was heavily settled by German Catholics in the 1800s under the spiritual leadership of Francis de Sales Brunner, a missionary priest who established parish churches in the area. The region is now known as The Land of the Cross-Tipped Churches due to the unusually high number of Catholic worship structures in this rural area. When driving through this flat, agricultural county, you can see for miles in every direction, and no matter which way you turn, a tall steeple is silhouetted against the horizon. However, just outside of Maria Stein sits Moeller Brew Barn.
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Land Grant Brewing | Beard Crumbs

You can’t deny the prevalence of beards that exist in the craft beer world. I’ve got one, so I can’t really complain or dispute the association. Sometimes I wonder if some get into craft beer just to justify their beard. Well, Land Grant Brewing Company isn’t afraid to express its love of beards either, and they’ve done just that with their winter seasonal Beard Crumbs Oatmeal Stout.

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Great Lakes Brewing Company Announces 2018 Beer Release Calendar

The hits just keep coming today as Cleveland’s Great Lakes Brewing Company has also announced their 2018 Beer Release Calendar in celebration of the brewery’s 30th anniversary year.
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MadTree Brewing | Ye Olde Battering Ram Bourbon Barrel Aged Barleywine

MadTree Brewing is a major player in the Ohio beer scene, and among the largest breweries in Cincinnati’s thriving craft market. The company built a new production brewery in early 2017, and have grown rapidly, but sustainably in the half decade since their founding. Their quirky but smart beer portfolio and attractive packaging are now available all around Ohio, as well as some areas of Indiana and Kentucky.

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Event Recap | Dayton’s Ale-O-Ween 2017

The Steam Plant on Third Street just east of downtown Dayton, Ohio, was built 110 years ago by Dayton Power & Light to provide heat for the small Midwestern city before being closed in the 1980s and falling into disrepair. It appeared destined for a date with the wrecking ball until a recent renovation restored this art deco industrial building to its former glory and turned it into a premier event space.

The first public event to be held in The Steam Plant? Ale-O-Ween, a one-day beer festival put on by the Ohio Craft Brewers Association and showcasing some of the best beers in the Buckeye State. Read More

2 Days, 2 Nights | Dayton’s Craft Beer Scene

Dayton, Ohio, doesn’t get much love.

While the country’s craft beer nuts have started to pay attention to the amazing beer scenes in nearby Cincinnati and Columbus, Dayton gets ignored. That’s a big mistake because Dayton has an excellent and growing beer scene in a compact and affordable city center. With close to twenty breweries (and more in the planning stages) and quite a few excellent beer bars and beer-conscious restaurants—many of which are located in or near an attractive and walkable downtown area—Dayton makes for a great weekend beer getaway. If you decide to leave downtown, there are plenty of breweries and awesome restaurants in neighborhoods and suburbs farther afield, but let’s just focus on the heart of Dayton for now.
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Jackie O’s Brewery | Scrip

Athens, Ohio, is a small college town hidden in the hills of southeast Ohio’s coal country that plays host to several excellent breweries, the oldest and most notable of which is Jackie O’s Brewery. Jackie O’s beers cover the spectrum of styles, from sessionable pale ales to barrel-aged behemoths, and rustic saisons to elegant barleywines. Nothing is off limits for this eclectic brewery, and it’s fitting that one of their most celebrated new beers this summer is a style that’s just beginning to creep into the consciousness of American craft beer drinkers—Grisette.

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Sour Summer: Five Sour Craft Beers to Beat the Heat

Featured image courtesy of Braxton Brewing Co.

For most, the hot summer months mean moving to lighter beers. It makes sense that a light, crisp, refreshing beer is better when you are in the sun, but that doesn’t mean you have to default to a light lager or blonde ale. Many other styles fit the hot summer months just as well, such as sour craft beers. And I am not talking about the traditional sours like lambics but rather kettle sours (aka quick sours). There’s been a huge influx of this type of beer and I think they are a great fit for a hot summer day because they offer low ABV, are ideally drank cold, and provide a crisp, refreshing taste that fights off the effects of the hot summer sun.

Here in Cincinnati, we have a lot of great options that fit this style. Plus, these beers are easy to bring along when you are enjoying the outdoors. Here are five of my favorite Cincinnati summer sours.

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Urban Artifact | Warmug

ABV: 7.7% | IBU: 20

Just because something is different doesn’t mean it isn’t great. And Urban Artifact Warmug is a perfect example. Read More

Listermann Brewing Company & Cincinnati Zoo | Team Fiona NE IPA

Feature Photo: Cincinnati Zoo

Listermann Brewing Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, has paired up with the Cincinnati Zoo to create a beer for the lovable baby hippo Fiona. Members of Fiona’s care team actually helped brew the beer, a New England Style IPA coming in at 6.2% ABV with Citra and Centennial hops. The beer will be released in cans on Saturday June 10th at the brewery.

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Great Lakes Brewing Cans Are Now Available!

The wait is over! Great Lakes Brewing Company cans are now available for purchase. The brewery made an announcement in March that it would begin packaging some of its products differently. GLBC has been creating a solid product for 29 years, and what better way to continue this legacy than by promoting some of their newer offerings just in time for the summer season?

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Warped Wing Brewing Co. | Trotwood Lager

Image courtesy of Full Frame Studios.

ABV: 4% | IBU: 20

When the temperatures begin creeping into the 70s here in Ohio each spring, we begin shedding our winter coats and making plans for summer. As we put our fuzzy mittens into storage, we start opting less often for stouts and other heavy beers and reaching instead for lighter, sunnier fare. For those of us in the Dayton area, that often means Warped Wing Trotwood Lager.

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Streetside Brewery | Suh, Brah? New England Style IPA

ABV: 6.7%

Are you on the haze train? If you enjoy a craft beer that looks more like a glass of juice than a glass of beer, Streetside Brewery’s Suh, Brah? is the hazy beer for you!

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Rivertown Brewery & Barrel House | Sour Noir

Cincinnati is approaching 40 breweries, which is an amazing feat for my city. One of the breweries that has been around since the beginning of the craft beer boom is … Read More

What to Drink at a Cincinnati Reds Game

Featured image courtesy of Pixabay

Cincinnati is known for its rich history with baseball and beer. In fact, Cincinnati was the first city to have a professional baseball team in 1869. And with a large German population, the city also had over 30 breweries during those early baseball years. This prompted the then Red Stockings to serve beer at baseball games, which was quite controversial at the time. So it’s easy to see that beer and Red’s baseball have been a critical part of Cincinnati’s history from the very beginning.

It is no different today; the Queen City is still in love with its baseball team and the city’s love for beer is evident by the nearly 40 breweries that now call Cincinnati home. That love for craft beer and baseball is displayed at Great American Ball Park (GABP) where there is an impressive beer list. For me, I immediately look toward the local craft beer on the list and two stand out: Rhinegeist‘s Hustle and MadTree Brewing’s Rounding Third. Not only are these tasty brews but they are also baseball themed.

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